Coconut Chocolate Chip Muffins

In my most recent "what I ate Wednesday" post I mentioned how the coconut chocolate chip muffin was my favorite thing I ate. Well, I knew I needed to share the recipe, but when I originally made them I used sourdough. I don't consider sourdough starter a household item, so I wanted to make a variation. I got around to that a few days ago and it turns out the variation is better than the original!

Coconut Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 cup rolled oats

1 1/4 cups coconut milk (I used the boxed kind)

1/3 cup coconut oil, melted*

1 egg

1 cup white whole wheat flour

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups; set aside (or line with paper cups).
2. In a small bowl combine rolled oats and coconut milk. Set aside to soak for a few minutes.
3. Mix oil and egg into soaked oats.
4. In a large bowl mix together both flours, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. 
5. Add oat mixture and chocolate chips to dry ingredients, stirring until just combined.
6. Divide batter among the 12 cups and bake for 15 - 18 minutes.

7. Let cool for a few minutes in the muffin tin before placing them on a wire rack to cool.....You can also eat them warm : )

*I haven't used coconut oil in a muffin before this (and the original batch with the sourdough) and, though the muffins turned out great, both times the oil seemed to come out of the muffin in the cooking process and end up in the bottom of the muffin tin. I am thinking that if I melted the coconut oil in the milk (so that the milk was also warm....meaning the oil would also go in with the oats to soak) that this may not happen. You can decide if you want to use coconut oil or some other kind of fat. However, the coconut oil and coconut milk are what make this muffin taste like........you guessed it, coconut!

Does anyone with more experience with coconut oil in muffins have a different suggestion?